Thanks, Francis, for this article and all the others that you have recently posted at the Mariinsky forum. This article seems to summarize much of what I've read before. Keenan Kampa is outspoken, honest, respectful, determined and surely very talented.

"Keenan Kampa is the first American dancer to graduate from the Vaganova Academy and to win a spot at the Mariinsky Ballet, but hard work lies ahead.

[Her first 'intensive' year] .... "much of it recounted in a film about Kampa produced by Ken Ferguson — only fueled her drive and her ability to “detach” as she says."

"By the second year, Kampa could communicate and her muscles had molded to the new routines. Her confidence grew and so did the support she received — she was selected for plum roles in school productions."

I noticed that Skorik was originally cast to play Tatiana in Balanchine's Midsummer Night's Dream. It seems now that she has been replaced. Do they normally make cast changes on such short notice? Or is it due to injury?

On a side note, I would love to see Skorik in Balanchine works, especially Rubies!

Regarding cast changes at the Mariinsky- it depends. It often does happen that a dancer gets sick or injured and has to be replaced at the last minute. I'm not in Petersburg right now so I can't comment on Skorik's replacement this week.

As a separate note, for the critics and viewers who noted Konstantin Zverev's performances of Rothbart while on the California tour stops this month, he just performed Albrecht to Diana Vishneva's Giselle at the Mariinsky on Oct. 21. Kondaurova was Myrtha - quite the cast

Apparently Skorik was not ill or injured. After the Titania replacement was posted on the MT web playbills, Skorik danced the Act II Pas de Deux, with Zverev, on Thursday (the initial night of the 3-night run of AMND). One of the Russian fora praises their pdd on Thursday night. The Titania role debut was to have occured the following night (Friday).

She will be dancing multiple Swan Lakes in Taiwan and South Korea next week. Maybe she is being given a chance to rest-up prior to the tour?

I'd love to know how Daria Pavlenko fared in her own Titania debut today!

In fact, when individuals refer to other forums/links/sites, please post the reference or if that is not possible, then mention it by name. This is to maintain authenticity and to avoid hearsay and similar issues.

Most of the post is pretty nasty, hitting on Askerov. It got into the topic of the 25 Oct Dream when comparing Zverev to Askerov. The poster very much enjoyed the 25 Oct pas de deux of Zverev & Skorik.

On a far more positive note, there was an extraordinary debut at the Mariinsky in last night's Don Q. Ksenia Zhiganshina, who still has one (or maybe two?) year(s) to go at the Vaganova Academy, danced a classically divine Amour. Thanks to YouTube, we can see her solo right here:

Natalia, I haven't yet seen, Ksenia Zhiganshina, so I haven't yet caught Ksenia Zhiganshina fever, but I'll try to get up to speed on this as soon as possible. Does the Mariinsky have a tree hidden away somewhere that grows all this incredible talent ?

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